Wireless telecommunications systems exist and overlap throughout the world providing both local, national and international calling services. Although many wireless telecommunications exist, increasingly, dual and multiple band phones permit international roaming for subscribers using the same wireless terminal. For example dual band global system for mobile communications (GSM) “world phones” permit international roaming for GSM subscribers, e.g., between GSM 900 and GSM 1900 public land mobile networks (PLMN). A GSM subscriber with a dual band GSM device can roam between two or more countries and continue to receive service provided the operators in the various countries have a roaming agreement.
A serious disadvantage with international roaming as it exists today is that local callers must dial an international number to reach the GSM subscriber even if the GSM subscriber is geographically located in their local area. This is expensive in terms of both utilization of network resources and costs to the callers and subscribers.
An example of the current state of international roaming is shown in FIG. 1. If a roaming GSM subscriber represented by handset 10 is located in a country 12 not local to his home PLMN 14, a local caller 16 must dial the GSM subscriber's 10 home system telephone number resulting in a connection to the home PLMN 14 as indicated by signal path 18. The Home Location Register (HLR) 20 of the home PLMN 14 routes the call to the roaming subscriber 10 in the distant country 13. The call is connected via the local PLMN 22 and as indicated by signal paths 24 and 26.
It would be desirable to have a visiting wireless subscriber access the local wireless services while roaming in distant lands using improved local calling techniques. Such calling techniques would result in improved customer service, improved operator efficiency, lower costs, and other advantages.